


Smoking

by ChillyHollow



Category: Cormoran Strike Series - Robert Galbraith
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Scotland Yard, Undercover
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-27
Updated: 2020-02-27
Packaged: 2021-02-28 01:27:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,353
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22925641
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChillyHollow/pseuds/ChillyHollow
Summary: Robin and Vanessa Go Undercover
Relationships: Robin Ellacott/Cormoran Strike, Robin Ellacott/Eric Wardle, Robin Ellacott/Vanessa Ekwensi
Comments: 2
Kudos: 31





	Smoking

Strike was tired after a long day of walking, doing surveillance on a man suspected of stealing from his employer.So he stopped in a pub to have a beer and rest his bad leg.It was Friday afternoon and the place he choose was pretty empty but by the time he had ordered and drunk a beer, it was starting to fill up with the after-work crowd from the offices around the area.

He entertained himself by people-watching.There were lots of young men and women, most trying to catch the eye of those of the opposite sex.It made Strike feel like an old man but some of the women were worth looking at.He particularly liked looking at a tall blonde who was leaning against the bar and talking with an elegant black woman, both ignoring the guys trying to buy them drinks.The blonde had long hair and long legs in tight jeans and boots that set off a nice ass.Her friend was good-looking but Strike had a thing for tall women. 

Ellacott and Ekwensi were rating the men they worked with on the sexist pig scale of one to five.They agreed that Wardle rated half an oink and awarded the other half to Carver to bring him up to five and a half oinks.“Although,” Robin pointed out to be fair, “he’s a pig to everyone, not just women.”The bartender slid into view.“Another, ladies?” he asked.“Sure,” they answered together, and toasted each other with their very alcoholic-looking mocktails.They were working, trying to appear as drunk as possible in this bar where several women had been drinking before they’d been attacked by a slender man with a knife.The bartender was necessarily onto their ruse but he had a good alibi—he’d been on vacation in Spain during all of the attacks. 

Strike finished his beer and decided against another.It was more work than he wanted to do to push his way through the crowd to the bar for a refill.He took one last look at the pretty blonde, got up, and headed for the men’s room to empty his bladder before heading back to his office to wrap up a few things before he got something to eat and took himself off to his flat. 

Vanessa took another look around the crowded dining room.There were plenty of men who could be called slender (and many more who didn’t even come close) but none appeared to be paying any more than normal attention to women in the establishment.“What time is it?” she asked Robin. 

“Nearly six.I guess we’d better make a trip to the ladies and then stroll down the street.Which way are you going?”Vanessa said she was going to head west toward the train station via the back streets while Robin was going east through the little alley with the fancy name of Denmark Place before coming out on Denmark Street and then circling around to meet up with Vanessa.Supposedly there were police in plain clothes scattered along their route but both policewomen were aware that they were essentially on their own if they were attacked since it might take a few minutes for someone to come to their aid.But this is what she’d trained so hard for, Robin reminded herself.

They headed to the ladies separately, just to give the attacker time to look them over if he was present, Robin making sure she stumbled a bit on the steps down to the bathrooms to give the impression that she was tipsy.A man was exiting the men’s room and he wordlessly reached out and steadied her.Robin muttered thanks and kept going.The man certainly wasn’t her prey.He was too tall and broad to be considered slender by anyone smaller than Jumbo the elephant. 

She combed her hair, checked that her microphone was still in position taped between her breasts, looked at her phone (no word from that slime Matthew, who was supposed to have signed the divorce papers today), squared her shoulders and headed back to the bar to finish off her drink while Vanessa took a bathroom break.After all the tea and cranberry juice they’d drunk, they needed it!

Strike was on the way out of the bar, wondering just what was wrong with the blonde he’d steadied on the stairs.Something was off and he wasn’t sure what.Then it hit him, she didn’t smell like booze although she acted tipsy.He wondered if he’d run into an undercover operation of some sort.She didn’t look like a policeman, although that was the point.He’d done plenty of undercover himself.Being something totally different than you actually were was the name of the game.Well, none of his business.He headed off down the sidewalk toward Denmark Street, dodging the crowd of people on their way home or out to eat or to the bars. 

The slender man was undecided.He liked the little black woman’s looks but something about her said “hard as nails.”He wanted easy prey and her blonde companion looked both tasty and like a nice girl in the big city.That was his favorite:the innocent clerical worker out for a drink after work, the suburban mom in the city shopping for the day, the art student with her head in the clouds.He enjoyed playing tiger to their rabbit and stripping them of any illusion that they had power over the likes of him.So he’d watch the pair and see where they went when they left his favorite bar. 

Vanessa and Robin exited the bar, said their goodbyes, and headed off in opposite directions.Vanessa stopped after a few steps and took out her phone, more to appear distracted than anything else.Robin kept going, window shopping as she went to both look like she had her mind on a new outfit and to watch the reflections in the glass to spot if anyone appeared to be following her.It was hard to say for certain if there was anyone stalking her.The sidewalk was crowded with people, many of whom were male and could be called slender by a woman who was panicking.She thought perhaps the glum looking man with a briefcase in an ill-fitting suit behind her and to her left might be undercover.She thought she’d seen him in the stairwell at Scotland Yard.He disappeared in the crowd.Robin kept going.

Strike was plodding along towards Denmark Street.His leg was really bothering him so he was taking it slow, trying to avoid the people who pressed all around him.He really did need at least part-time help now to keep up with all the surveillance jobs.Fortunately he’d be able to rest his leg all weekend as he had nothing on the agenda until Monday afternoon.He was planning some serious time on his bed watching football on Sunday afternoon but the rest of his weekend was free, a rare luxury.As he got closer to his destination, the crowds started to thin.By the time he turned into Denmark Place, he was the only pedestrian.He decided he’d sit down in the alley behind a convenient dumpster and smoke before he continued to pick up something to eat.He knew there was a pile of skids there he could sit on to rest his leg.

Vanessa was approaching the train station so she slowed down.No sign of anyone taking special interest in her except for the clumsy bobby who was keeping an eye on her.At this rate they weren’t ever going to catch the bastard.She decided to stop for a coffee, then circle back to meet Robin.

Robin pulled out her phone again and looked at it as she walked, trying to give the impression that she wasn’t paying much attention to anything and also checking to see if Matthew had texted her he’d signed the papers.But of course he’d done everything possible to drag his feet over the divorce although she was pretty sure that by this time he wanted to be free of her as much as she wanted to be free of him.After all, his paramour was nearly four months pregnant and chomping at the bit to marry Matthew.She was welcome to that cheating slime.Robin put the phone away, sighed, and turned into the empty alley that called itself Denmark Place. 

The slender man smiled to himself and opened his knife in his pocket.Nearly far enough down the empty alley now….

Strike finished his cigarette and decided against smoking another.He would just sit here a moment longer before he gathered himself to continue walking.

Robin stopped dead.The alley was empty but she could smell smoke.There was a dumpster behind one of the locked doors.Could the slender man be smoking there, lying in wait?Then she heard running steps behind her and turned to see a man in a short jacket running at her, knife already out in his hand.As time slowed to a crawl, Robin prepared herself for the attack.The slender man had a knife so if she got close to him she could slip through his arms and hit his throat and perhaps one of his knees.That might disable him long enough for her to summon help.She screamed, knowing that would bring her backup running.

Strike was standing before he realized it, galvanized by the woman’s scream.He limped out from behind the dumpster to see a man with a knife running at the tall blonde from the bar.She did all the right things, getting close enough to him to block the knife arm and giving one of his knees a good whack with one booted foot, but the man seemed frenzied.Strike launched himself at the man’s back, slipping his arms past his waist and up to lace his fingers behind the man’s neck, effectively immobilizing his arms which he waved hopelessly.The attacker dropped his knife and Strike let his bulk diving into the man knock him over face first onto the road.There was a crunch.Strike hoped the bastard’d broken his nose.He grabbed at the man’s wrists.The blonde, confirming Strike’s guess that she was undercover, clapped a handcuff around one wrist but she couldn’t get at the other.Strike grabbed the handcuffs out of her hand, and with the ease of long practice got the other wrist pulled into position and the cuffs on it, too.The blonde kicked the knife well out of reach and swore, “I had him.Can’t you guys let a girl get credit for an unassisted arrest for once?”

Strike rolled to his side and looked up at her.She was really attractive when her eyes were sparkling with anger.“You can have the credit.You did well except in the bar you didn’t smell of booze.”Robin wrinkled her nose and thought back.Yes, this was the tall man who’d steadied her on the bathroom stairs when she was pretending to be drunk.And he had a point.He must be one of the senior detectives gone undercover to watch her back. 

They didn’t have time to say anything more before several other policemen ran up to them, panting.Strike recognized Wardle but he didn’t know the uniformed men surrounding the man with the knife.Strike sat on the ground, watching the uniforms hustle the man in handcuffs away.The black woman who had been in the bar came running up and spoke to the blonde, asking her if she was ok.Then they both looked at Strike sitting on the ground, his bad leg stretched out straight.Wardle walked up to the pair of women, joined them in looking at Strike, then reached down and helped haul him to his feet.

“Should have known you’d butt in where you weren’t wanted, mate,” Wardle said, not without affection.The women looked at Wardle in puzzlement so he introduced them.“This is Cormoran Strike, private detective and general pain in the ass.He’s always in the way.The short one is my sergeant, Vanessa Ekwensi, and the tall one's Robin Ellacott, plainclothes.”Strike nodded at them, straightening his clothes and trying to smooth his hair back into order.He was going to have a nice bruise on one shoulder.He looked at the blonde and asked, “You ok?” 

She nodded, “No thanks to you.I had him.”

“He was in a frenzy, Ellacott.You did well but he was likely to have gotten a few blows in before the calvary arrived.”He looked at Wardle, “He kept screaming about being a tiger.You need a psych evaluation on that one.”Wardle nodded and headed back out of the alley, Vanessa trailing him.Robin and Strike looked at each other.“Aren’t you going with them?” Strike asked.

“No, they’ll book him and take my statement tomorrow.There are plenty waiting to take credit for this one.I’ll be lucky if I get a mention as the bait in the official report.”Unselfconsciously she unbuttoned the top button of her blouse, pulled out the microphone and turned it off, stuffing it into her little purse.She left the top button undone, giving Strike a view of a few pale freckles on her creamy skin.Her phone pinged.She pulled it out and found the expected text from Matthew.“Signed.Hope you are happy now that you ruined my life.”She made a face.

Strike noticed, but then he noticed almost everything.“Bad news?”

“No, good news.My ex just signed the divorce papers.”

“Then you need to go celebrate.It’s rare day when you get shut of a bad guy and a husband simultaneously.” 

Robin looked up and suddenly smiled.“You’re right.Where’s the nearest bar?”

Strike said, “The Tottenham.And I’m buying the first round.” 

Robin looked him over top to bottom and said, “You certainly are.”

The rest is history.


End file.
